More than 2,000 known or suspected terrorists have been deported so far during President Donald Trump’s second term, federal authorities said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the numbers as America commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said homeland security officials continue to monitor and thwart terrorist threats and maintain “eternal vigilance” both at home and abroad. The various agencies under DHS work every day to identify terrorists and get them out of the country, Mullin said.
Mullin delivered remarks at DHS headquarters on Sept. 11 and said, “I serve with true patriots.” He said 270,000 DHS employees wake up “every single morning defending our homeland.”
“Underneath President Trump’s leadership, since he’s been in office this time, thanks to @DHSgov and our partners in federal, local, and state police, we’ve arrested 2,150 terrorists inside the United States.”@SecMullinDHS on how DHS is getting terrorists out of our country and… pic.twitter.com/vk4V75FP01
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 11, 2026
From Jan. 20, 2025, to Sept. 9, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists in the United States and has deported 2,015, according to a DHS news release.
“When we say ‘never forget,’ we are dedicating our lives to eternal vigilance so that we will never see a terrorist attack like that on American soil ever again,” Mullin said.
The Sept. 11 attacks prompted a renewed focus on homeland security and sweeping changes at airports and led to the creation of DHS in 2002, the Washington Examiner reported. Along with border security and immigration enforcement, the federal department protects airports, ports of entry and other critical infrastructure from terrorism.
The Sept. 11 attacks also prompted United States military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq targeting radical Islamic terrorists, and Mullin said the threat remains 25 years later.
The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden’s open border policies for allowing millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, particularly young, single men, into the country.
Historically, illegal migrants crossed the border from Mexico and South America. Under the Biden administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded migrant encounters from over 170 countries worldwide, including countries that harbor, fund and train Islamic terrorists.
The more than 2,000 people removed in the last two years were known or suspected terrorists that were let into this country, and it wasn’t to live the American dream, Mullin said.
Rather, just like those that brought down the Twin Towers and killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, they want to tear down the United States and do harm to Americans, Mullin said.
Among those arrested so far, Mexican national Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez was identified as the ringleader of the failed terrorist plot against UFC Freedom 250 in June.
DHS said he entered the United States on a B-2 visitor visa that expired in December 2001. The Obama Administration granted him Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2014. ICE lodged a detainer following his arrest.
In another case, Brazilian Felipe Linares De Oliveira Dell Aquilla was arrested in June in Mooresville, North Carolina. He was holding his wife hostage against her will as he made plans to flee to Mexico.
He illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and location and is a former commander of two designated foreign terrorist organizations.
In June, four members of the terrorist organization Tren de Aragua pleaded guilty to a double murder in the Bronx in 2024. DHS said all four entered the United States illegally between 2022 and 2023.
President Trump has taken a tough stance on transnational drug cartels and gangs, designating many of them as foreign terrorist organizations through an executive order.
In February 2025, the U.S. Department of State added Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel del Golfo, and Cárteles Unidos as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.
The State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are also cracking down on visas and green cards, while ramping up denaturalization cases against suspected terrorists and foreign fraudsters.
